Exploring Spatial Menu Representation and Apartment-Based Categorization for Online Shopping

This work aims to explore, design and implement better and intuitive categorization schemes and menu representations for online shops that enrich and improve the shopping experience. We utilize the Apartment metaphor, in which products are categorized into rooms and furniture representing departments and shelves. Furthermore, we developed a realistic and interactive map-based spatial menu representation based on prior research findings. In a comparative user study, we evaluated our new menu categorization and representation in comparison with the current standard in online shops, based on real data from a local retailer. The results show that our apartment-based categorization in combination with a spatial representation outperforms all other conditions regarding all tested variables of performance (success rate, task completion time) and preferences (user experience, usability, workload).